Alex Jarkey 2004
Paul Galea:
Yeah. Hello, Alex Jarkey, it’s Paul Galea from International Grammar School. Just ringing up to find out how you’re going and what’s going on.
Alex:
Oh, hi. Thanks so much for calling. Yeah, I really appreciate you taking the time.
Paul Galea:
No worries, mate. Now, what I like to do is to try and give a little bit of an introduction. Usually, this just comes straight out of my memory bank, which is getting worse and worse as I get older. But I do remember you very well. You’re IGS royalty in that you left in 2004 and you married a very long term IGS student, Angela Hibbard so you’re an IGS couple. And you’re also the brother of Dom Jarkey, another IGS student. You were a very good student, if I remember correctly and a little bit of a geeky one, and you can tell me if that’s not right if you want to, but that’s my memories. Anyway, mate, welcome to the show. And also let us know what you’re doing now and how you got there.
Alex:
Thanks. So Angela and I met in high school. We met in Year 11 and 12 and, yeah, we’re married now, and we have two children, one of whom is now looking in the door at me. Alice and Arthur. (to Alice) Alice, I have to be on this phone call. I’m really sorry, sweetie. OK, five minutes. I’ll be back in a minute. OK? (back to PG)So I’m really sorry about that; it’s a busy day, because today I’m working from home. Alice is here, at home from play school. So I’m looking after the kids for a bit.
Paul Galea:
You need to these days, mate. You’ve got to be a multi tasker!
Alex:
Yeah, that’s right. So, you know, we we got married. Straight after high school, I went to university, and Angela did, too. She went in and did nursing. I did engineering, and, yeah, basically, we’ve been on the same journey ever since, and it’s been really good. I’m really glad that we got to be high school sweethearts, and are now raising a family together.
Paul Galea:
OK, so you did engineering at uni. And was that something you always wanted to do?
Alex:
So weirdly enough, it it was only in about Year 11 when, you start thinking about your HSC choices, and I had to think, ‘What am I going to do?’ I did a lot of science subjects, and I was very into science. Engineering wasn’t even something I’d considered until I actually had to, you know, start thinking about choices. Now that I think about it, I’m really happy with the choice that I made. It was the right decision for me. I just didn’t know it was called engineering! At the time, I thought I wanted to be an inventor or something like that and build gadgets.
Paul Galea:
So your vibe was that you were curious about making things, and then you realise that engineering was the job that you wanted to do? Is that it?
Alex:
Yeah, Exactly. So, again, throughout High School, I did various subjects, like Design Technology and we did a software sort of class and everything like that. And those were things that really gelled with me. There was some sort of programming and now I’m in software. That’s the sort of career that I’m in. I do a lot of software development, and IT stuff and everything and that’s been really something that I’ve used throughout my whole career. I mean, I did Maths and again that was absolutely essential to doing engineering. It was really just what I think that I enjoy doing. And now I’m glad that I’ve been able to make a career out of it.
Paul Galea:
Yeah. Out of something you’re very interested in. Yeah. Now, listen. I don’t quite understand that. So I always thought that engineering was building bridges and things like that. So explain how you’re now a software engineer.
Alex:
So it’s a good story, because again, what I put in my sort of preferences in Year 12, was called Mechatronic Engineering, which most people haven’t heard of. But it’s a combination of electrical, mechanical and software engineering. And really what it boils down to is robotics. Like, that’s why people get into mechatronics. And then it turned out, actually, at the end that this is a good story for other people who are students now. I didn’t actually get the UAI (ATAR)I wanted to. I ended up having to enter through this programme called Flexible First Year Engineering. So I didn’t quite make the cut off in terms of my marks for the subject that I wanted, but that was OK because there was sort of an alternate pathway there, where I did a flexible first year engineering course. I did a variety of subjects and, honestly, a lot of engineering is very similar. You know, you do your physics, you do your math, you do some basic sort of like, ethics training and things like that. And then that’s your first year. After that, you can diversify into doing something more specialised. So I managed to get the grades in my first year of university that let me enter the program that I really wanted to enter.
Paul Galea:
Yeah, that’s good, because I think what happens is a lot is people need to get into uni first. And then once you get in there, my vibe is that first year is just is basically sorting out the “wheat from the chaff”. And if you can hang in there and do quite well in first year, then you’ve got a much better choice of where you can actually go. So that is good advice for the youngsters out there. So then obviously you made the transition across to Mechatronic Engineering. And so tell us what happened from there.
Alex:
Yes. So I finished my degree, did an Honours Year and then I just went straight into the workforce. It was fortunate that the engineering degree I was in had sort of a work experience program, so I’d already had a few hours of, you know, working in a engineering discipline. I managed to get on to a full time role with the place that I’d been working at and that company was called ‘Ramp’. They did RFID tags, and that was an interesting area to work in. But again, weirdly enough, something that I was not remotely my specialty, right? That’s radio frequency stuff. It’s all about antennas and attenuation and things like that. So the other lesson I think I picked up there, which was really good, was that no matter how much you think you studied for anything or how much you think school or university has prepared you, you do have to keep learning throughout your whole career. You just have to understand that you’re going to get into a job, and the first thing that you’re going to learn is that you have no idea about what the actual workplace is like! So that was good. I learned a lot about antennas and frequency and radio frequency and all sorts of stuff. That was really great.
Paul Galea:
That happens in all work. In all walks of life, mate. Not just engineering. I think the only way to really learn how to do a job is to do it. University can prepare you, but the reality is, once you get in there you really learn. I mean, I know with my teaching. I didn’t realise I really wanted to be a teacher until I actually did it. Before then, it was theoretical and you’ve got no real idea what the reality is. So that’s good. So then you just stayed on that path? Or did you move into different areas?
Alex:
So one of the good things, like I said, was that my degree is pretty flexible; it has a variety of things. I ended up being much more interested in software so that’s where I pushed myself. So, I’ve moved down to Melbourne. Angela and I got married while we were up in Sydney. Then, I got a job offer from someone that I went to university with, down in Melbourne to do some medical device manufacturing. It was a company called ‘Planet Innovation’ and they do specialised work. You have to have specific certification to do implantable devices or anything in the health care industry. So this was engineering for those type of projects. One of the things that I’m sort of most proud of working out there is we did an incubator for human embryos, which was a really cool project to work on, and stuff with hearing aids. And what else do we do? Lots and lots of different projects and stuff about bones and skeletal systems and analysis on people walking. Yeah, it was a really cool job to do.
Paul Galea:
Yeah, that sounds like you’re doing some great stuff to help out people. Hey, I don’t know whether you listened to my interview with Sheridan, who was, I think a few years ahead of you? She’s into that area as well. You should listen to her, because she’s doing wearable medical things. Sounds very similar to what you’re into.
Alex:
Well, look, I want to catch up with the whole IGS thing because we didn’t attend the 10 Year Reunion, but I think we’re coming up on our 20 Year Reunion. So that’s what made me kind of follow this whole path. I started thinking, ‘Oh, yeah. Hang on. It’s 20 years in a bit. We should catch up.’
Paul Galea:
Yeah, there will be a big event for you so that’s something to look forward to. So tell me, what about Melbourne?
Alex:
Yeah. No, that was cool. Again, I recommend for a lot of people, especially while you’re young before you have kids, it’s good to live in another city or another country for a bit. Like if you get the opportunity, to take it. That’s another bit of sort of my life advice. It was tricky, you know. We had to stay in a apartment for a while, and we didn’t know what we were going to do, and we didn’t have many friends and so forth, but it was great to be able to sort of be independent and go and live away from your sort of support network for a while and manage on your own. So that was really good. I’m glad we did that. Yeah.
Paul Galea:
Yeah. And you like Melbourne?
Alex:
Yeah. No, we thought it was great and interestingly enough, I would have stayed there but the reason we decided to move back is because we talked about starting a family and having had some friends who lived in Melbourne and didn’t have, you know, the grandparents around to help with the kids and everything like that. We were like, ‘Oh, there’s no way we can do this on our own. We need to move back up to Sydney where we can get some help from our families!’
Paul Galea:
That support network is very important. Yeah, is Ange still doing the nursing?
Alex:
That’s right. Yeah. So she’s a nurse educator now, which is sort of a different pathway. She doesn’t do shift work anymore; she now is teaching other nurses how to be nurses, basically, and doing policy development and those kind of things. She’s back at uni as well, doing her Masters now, because that’s part of her career progression that she needs to do.
Paul Galea:
OK, well, you make sure you say ‘hi’ to her. She was one of the first kids that I ever looked after.
Alex:
She was. Kindergarten? Yeah, her and Kimberly Pilkinton, who I caught up with the other day. They’re doing great as well. They’ve got two kids as well.
Paul Galea:
That’s good. I might say, you’ve given some really good advice already. Tell me some of the nice things that happened to you at IGS. Well, you’ve got a wife out of it so that you can give that a giant tick! But anything else, any other memories you’ve got and things that you reckon that made a difference to your life, going to IGS?
Alex:
Yeah. So I met my wife at IGS. I’ve met a lot of my long term friends through IGS as well. Basically, I still hang out with the people we hung out with in Year 12; with a lot of them anyway. Those who are still around. Daniel Samuels has moved up to New York now, but Nick Loukakis and Stuart Gibson and a few other people like Oliver Burnett and those guys; we all hang out on Fridays and stuff. It’s very good to have friends that we’ve been friends with for so long. It’s really an awesome part and it’s one of the reasons as well that we’ve been such a, or rather I feel like my life has been such a stable sort of thing. Having friends from such a long time ago.
Paul Galea:
Yeah, And by the way, what a high quality bunch of mates! Seriously, some really good people. That’s nice. And what about, have you got any memories of things that you did at school that stick out or just basically, you generally remember it as being a positive experience, or don’t tell us if it wasn’t!
Alex:
No. I mean, I think that the thing that I remember most fondly probably is, in fact, those social times, those free periods. I think, looking back, I really appreciate how much freedom and flexibility IGS gave us to set our own agenda, manage our own time. So, you’re supposed to be sort of studying in those free periods, and usually we did. But sometimes we didn’t. And I don’t regret the times we didn’t because those were the moments that made us sort of bond as friends and have social relationships that lasted such a long time. So, yeah, that was really good to have that kind of flexibility in a high school environment.
Paul Galea:
Yeah, very nice. Alright, mate. Well, that’s very nice of you to let us know how things are going. As I say, I’ve got very fond memories of you and particularly of Angela, from when she was a very little girl and I’m looking forward to seeing you at your 20 year reunion, which will be in 2024 which is not that far away. So keep an eye on the social media because I’ll be giving you a save the date very early in 2024 about when that’s going to be on. I’ll get some of the teachers to come along and it’ll be a great event, mate. So lovely.
Alex:
No worries. Thanks so much. Good to hear from you as well. I hope everything’s going well.
Paul Galea:
I’m just getting old, but it’s OK!
Alex:
Thank you so much. Bye.